At present, for building livestock stable flooring, different types of moulded pieces are produced, which can be suspended from a gridwork of resistant supports to form an intermediate level that livestock can walk over and below which the liquids and waste that are eliminated from the surface, such as wash water or liquid manure, can flow.
In order to provide a surface that is at an appropriate temperature for the livestock to rest on, the moulded pieces are fitted with hot water heating, although some pieces are designed to be fitted with electrical heating. To provide these types of floors with heating entails that in fact, each unit of flooring or module is comprised of a number of moulded or injected sections that conveniently interlock.
Patent document ES 2144434 describes a moulded piece or flooring module, which comprises a first section in the shape of a hollow tray, equipped with means for being suspended from a grid and acting as the support for a moulded section that houses the heating components inside designed with a suitable surface for animals to walk on. An insulating plaque is fitted between the moulded section and the hollow tray in order to thermally insulate the heating system.
If the heating system uses hot water, the moulded section incorporates a moulded tubular casing beneath the transit surface through which the hot water can flow.
One of the first disadvantages of this type of design is that the entire moulded section has to be changed according to the type of heating system used, because it is different if using hot water or electricity, and this means that different moulds have to be cast in order to produce different types of pieces.
Secondly, this type of design has the disadvantage that the waste waters that are eliminated from the transit surface can seep through the joint between the moulded section and the support tray, giving rise to dampness and other types of problems, including the fact that the chemical agents in the wash water can produce a potential focus for bacteria as well as potentially damaging the insulating plaque fitted above the module's bottom tray.
According to the moulded piece described in patent ES 2144434, the joint between the moulded section and the tray is not totally watertight, despite all of the measures taken to this effect. In fact, to avoid liquids from settling at the bottom, the tray is designed with a suitable shape for liquids to flow towards the centre, from which it is evacuated through small holes.
Because the installations have to be as aseptic as possible, the fact that liquids can seep inside the module is a serious problem, which the abovementioned design and other ones known to date, cannot resolve.
Another aspect for improvement is that the tubular casing uses specially manufactured pieces that require welding because their complicated design means that it is impossible to manufacture such pieces by injection. The use of injected plastic pieces or shapes would improve the characteristics and performance of the module, because injected plastic pieces are more compact and consequently, have more sealed pores. By using injected pieces, the contamination of the circuit and the wearing of the installations as a result of the gases emitted by liquid manure, faeces and other chemical products, would become much more difficult.
Therefore, the lack of a module that can guarantee watertight sealing, which can also heat the surface using either water or electricity and at the same be of easier manufacture to the extent that it can be made by injection, becomes apparent.